Getting Lit after My Dentist Appointment - CLOSED

Lit Cafe

1071 North Tustin Street, Suite #100

Anaheim, CA 92807

Keen readers of this blog for the last nine years know that when I review a place in North OC for lunch, it's usually because I have a dentist appointment. That was the case on a recent early Thursday afternoon. After getting my teeth poked, prodded, and cleaned, I like to treat myself to a meal. This time, I enlisted my parents to come along with me to visit Lit Cafe in Anaheim.

Lit Cafe is a spot that's only open weekdays from 7 to 3pm, so this dentist appointment is one of the rare opportunities I'd be up this way during their limited hours. The cool kids all know that lit means something is popping, turned up, or awesome in every sense. Okay, I got those definitions from Urban Dictionary, so you know I'm not one of the cool kids.

This spot is a long time coming for the husband and wife team that opened it this spring. Chef David Fujimura and Chef Erica Tjangnaka met in culinary school. Talking with Chef David, he knew she was the one after she made him a cake, and he was blown away by her culinary talent and the woman behind the cake.

After graduating from The Culinary School at Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena, the duo has worked at some prominent restaurants. He's had stints at Cafe Hiro, 6ix Park Grill, Marche Moderne, Andrei's Conscious Cuisine, and Charlie Palmer at South Coast Plaza. Chef Erica has been very busy as well working with her mentor, Chef Stephane Treand of ST Patisserie in Costa Mesa, she's also held various positions at the St. Regis Hotel and Resort in Dana Point, Charlie Palmer, Marche Moderne, and has even taught classes at pastry school. All of this, and raising a family as well. That is impressive stuff for these two.

Now comes their first restaurant. Lit Cafe is right off the 91 Freeway, at the corner of La Palma and Tustin. They are between a nail salon on the left and a Taco Bell on the other side. There's plenty of parking at this restaurant, which they hope serves food that combines comfort and creativity. They see their food as a modern update on comfort food classics while using the freshest ingredients available.

Their menu bears this out. They offer breakfast toasts, three kinds of breakfast burritos, chilaquiles, and a couple of egg dishes. Lunch starts at 11 a.m. and consists of four varieties of salad, five sandwich options, two burgers, and a couple of out-of-the-ordinary items. Only their Lit Burger and Fries will set you back $15, while the rest of the menu hovers around the $11 mark.

I arrived at Lit Cafe at noon from my dentist appointment. Half of the 15 or so tables were occupied, one by my parents, who were waiting for me patiently to arrive. I quickly reviewed the menu, and we went to the register to order our food. You also might want to linger near the register just a bit because that's where the bakery cases are. I instantly liked the clean, high-ceilinged space. It was a bit sterile, but I found it comforting. Let's see if the food was comforting as well.

As you can see, I lingered a bit at the bakery case because we started out with two pastries to nosh on while we waited for our food to arrive. The Coffee Cake Crumble ($3.75) was done very nicely, with a subtle sweetness. The bottom portion was moist but not too damp, where it would lose its structural integrity. The crumble added just enough sweetness to not distract from the well-made pastry. The Almond Croissant ($3.00) was one of my best ones. It was light and full of flavor. Technically a very sound croissant, with quite a bit of almond filling inside and the sliced almonds outside added a nice textural element. If you like real-deal croissants, this is the one for you.

If there's one thing online that people rave about at Lit Cafe more than any other, it's probably these Chilaquiles ($12). From what I gathered, these started as a special item and were permanently added to the menu due to customer demand. My only problem with this was that my dad picked it up before I could. He saved me a few bites, though. They only have this green version, but what a version it was. Tortilla chips were layered with mozzarella and cotija cheese, salsa verde, and sour cream. The plate finished with some grilled smoked bacon, a cabbage cilantro slaw, and a sunny-side-up egg. A little different take on your traditional chilaquiles. The green salsa had an excellent heat, which the sour cream helped cool. The chips stayed crisp, even after spreading the egg yolk around. My dad's only complaint was about the bacon, which he wished would have been crisper. I will definitely call dibs on this one the next time I'm here.

My mom did not want breakfast, so she went with the House Greens Salad ($9). It consists of mixed greens, goat cheese, shredded carrots, candied almonds, and raspberries, and she swapped out the yuzu vinaigrette that usually comes with their ranch dressing. She could not have been happier with this salad. It had just the right amount of dressing coating the greens, the raspberries were at the peak of their freshness, and the goat cheese added a nice creaminess. It is a very well-balanced salad.

No chance that I was going to be a light eater at Lit Cafe. This Mr. Rosas Breakfast Burrito ($9.25) was the first of the two items I had this afternoon. This is the most traditional of the three breakfast burritos on the menu. One has honey in it, and the other has a maple syrup-soaked pancake bar in it, and I was not feeling either of those two. This Mr. Rosas burrito was filled with scrambled eggs, hash browns, caramelized onions, cheddar cheese, chicken sausage, and bacon. It came with both red and green salsa. It was not a huge burrito, but it was a well-crafted one. There was no greasiness, the egg was cooked nice and light, and the caramelized onions shoved the sausage off to the side, but the bacon was present. The red salsa had a little more flavor than the green, which was odd since the green salsa on the chilaquiles had a pretty good amount of heat. Still, it's a solid breakfast burrito and one of the better ones I've had this year.

I'm a big fan of loco moco, so the Lit Loco ($12) would be my second entree at Lit Cafe. A bed of Japanese rice is topped with a hamburger steak, then finished with a teriyaki au jus, gravy, and a sunny side up egg, Also thrown in the bowl was a potato salad and a good amount of sliced pickles. This represented a moco loco well, but adding more gravy would have made it even better. The hamburger was tender, and the rice soaked up the yolk nicely. The pickles seemed out of place here, but at least they were not overly intrusive like many pickles can be. The potato salad was a definite star of this bowl. It was light and creamy, with some shredded carrots for a crunch. It was not meant to be the star here, but it might have been. It's easy to see why this has been moved to the permanent menu.

I might have been too drawn to the bakery cases because we finished with a Chocolate Eclair ($3.25) and a Brownie ($3). The eclair was the better of the two. It had little crunchy balls perched on top, adding a nice textural element to each bite. The eclair itself was a classic. A nice, slightly crunchy outer shell and then a rich cream inside. Tasty but a little too small to split among the three of us. The brownie was fine, but I needed something to make it pop. Maybe a little icing? 

My parents and I were excited about our visit to Lit Cafe. Yes, I have read the online reviews about the prices being a few dollars too much and that the portion sizes are smaller than expected, but Chef Erica and Chef David are both highly trained chefs, and they are turning out some delicious, high-quality food here. They have met their goal of creating comfort food with a modern twist. I also feel that this is just the beginning for Lit Cafe. It will be an evolving process, as it is with most new restaurants, especially with first-time owners. As of our visit, they had not yet gotten their beer and wine license, so they were waiting to open for brunch on Saturdays until they got it. There's an announcement on their website that brunch will be starting on August 3rd, from 10 to 2pm. Stay tuned. As for now, Lit Cafe has limited hours when I can make it up there, but it's still worth the trip, maybe after my next dental visit in six months.

Out of five suns (because before it became a slang word, Lit was an OC band that had a big hit with "Place in the Sun"), five being best and zero being worst, Lit Cafe gets three solid suns.  

For more information about Lit Cafe, head to their website here: http://www.litcafeoc.com/